Increasingly clever machinesPatented by New York industrialist David Bruce Jr. in 1845, this pivotal typecaster precisely mimicked the motions of a hand caster. With mechanical arms that rocked in and out, it held the typemold before a powerful pump that filled it with molten typemetal. The machine then emptied the typemold, held it up before the pump, and emptied it again, repeating this process over and over again until thousands of letters were formed. Hand casters were not happy about this invention. In their opinion, the machine reduced the role of the skilled artisan to that of cranking a handle. In fact, they felt so strongly about the typecaster that after its successful demonstration nearby, the workers planned to tip the machine off the boat that was to ferry it back to the foundry. When Bruce discovered their plans he was able to foil the plot.